When I was a kid, one of my big life disappointments was that it was nearly impossible to get a keychain or pencil with my name on it without placing a special order (because when you’re six, nothing is more important than having something with your name on it).

When I hit my teens, suddenly my name went through a round of explosive popularity growth and I started seeing it everywhere. By then, I wasn’t nearly as excited about a miniature plastic license plate that said Marisa.

I went through something similar when I first started canning. Back in those early days, mason jars weren’t all the rage that they currently are and so there wasn’t much in the way of towels, prints, or tee-shirts featuring jams, pickles and other preserves.

Then suddenly, canning was hot and a world of kitchen linens, jar chandeliers, decorative mason mugs and jar-related art appeared out of the ether. I was delighted by it and am forever keeping my eyes open for particularly good representations of this canning art.

To my mind, the pickle tea towel from Fisk & Fern is most decidedly in the good canning art category. All of Fisk & Fern’s towels, cards, and aprons are designed, drawn, and handprinted by owner Laura Fisk in her Austin, Texas studio.

Thanks to Laura, I have three of these charming pickle towels to give away today to three lucky winners. Here’s how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post and share a thought about the recent popularity of canning.

Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, June 21, 2013. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday.

Giveaway open to everyone.

One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Canning season is here in full swing, which means now is the time to sharpen your canning skills with a class. Here’s where I’ll be over the course of the next six weeks.

June 18 – Strawberry Jam at The Brooklyn Kitchen in Brooklyn, New York. The class runs from 6:30 – 8:30 and features two ways to make strawberry jam. For this class, you can get 15% off the class price of $65 by using the code “JamTime” when you sign up. Sign up here!

June 22 – A pickling class at Greensgrow. We’ll make quick pickled cucumbers, as well as a batch designed and processed for shelf stability. Class is from 12 – 2 pm and costs $35. Registration page is here.

July 13 – Plum-Apricot Preserves! This class will focus on boiling water bath canning and combining different kinds of fruits for successful pectin-free jam making. This class is from 11 am – 1 pm at Indy Hall in Old City, Philadelphia. Leave a comment to sign up.

July 6 – Apricot Jam at The Brooklyn Kitchen in Brooklyn, New York. The class runs from 2 – 4 pm and features two ways to make apricot jam. The class costs $65 and you can sign up here.

This was the first weekend in the last month where I wasn’t traveling and didn’t have to attend a wedding. I taught a canning class on Saturday morning and then went cherry picking and picnicking with friends. Scott and I slept incredibly late on Sunday morning, ate a lazy homemade brunch and went to Costco. A good combination of productive and slothfulness, if you ask me. Now, to the links!

Last week was a very big week in Food in Jars giveaway land. Thanks to the incredible generosity of the folks at Hamilton Beach, I had eight of these Stack & Snap 10 Cup Food Processors to give away. Here are the winners!

When it comes to jam making, one of my favorite tricks is a maceration period. This is the step in which you clean and chop your fruit, mix it with sugar and pop it in the fridge until that moment (within 72 hours, ideally) when you have the time to cook it into jam. It breaks up the work and means that you can fit your preserving into your schedule instead of feeling at the mercy of the fruit.

One thing to know about macerating your fruit is that you don’t have to add the full amount of sugar the recipe calls for in order for it to work. This is particularly useful if you’ve funneled your fruit into a smallish container and only have room to add a cup or so of sugar.

There is just one problem here (at least if you’re me). You have to remember exactly how much sugar you included to the fruit so that when it comes time to cook, you know how much to add to round out the recipe. And here I say, make sure to label that sucker.

For years, I didn’t leave myself these little notes, always assuming that I’d remember how much sugar I added. Then I’d return to my macerating fruit and have to wonder, “did I add two cups of sugar? Or was it three?” A roll of duct tape and a Sharpie do the labeling job and make my life so much easier.

I know it sounds like a simplistic reminder, but it took me years to realize how useful these little notes can be.

I am of the opinion that relish is one of the least-loved preserves on the condiment spectrum. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case, since it’s dead easy to make, uses up a ton of produce, and is a team player of an ingredient (with a jar of relish, you can make tartar sauce, salad dressing, or just a nice topping for grilled fish or chicken).

I’m afraid that I haven’t helped the cause of relish much over the years, as I’ve posted just one other recipe in all the years I’ve been writing this site. I think it’s high time to change all that.

For this debut relish of the summer, I come bearing a recipe for fennel relish. Now, I realize that not everyone likes fennel (including my mother, who actively avoids anything in the fennel/anise/licorice family), but I’m a huge fan. I regularly slice it thinly and quickly pickle it and was ready to take the next step and preserve it for a longer length of time.

I used the Hamilton Beach Stack & Snap Food Processor for the prep on this relish and it made very quick work of the two pounds of fennel bulbs, as well as the two onions that needed to be broken down. You get about 8 cups of grated fennel from the two pounds, and happily, the bowl of this processor is big enough to handle it.

Once the fennel is grated and the onion is minced (just put it in the bowl with the chopping blade and pulse until it is in bits), you combine all the ingredients in a pot and cook until everything is heated through. There’s no worry about hitting set points (like with jam) or minimizing heat exposure to protect texture (like with pickles). It’s a ridiculously stress-free preserve to make.

This recipe made about four pints, which felt like a huge batch after all the tiny batch projects I’ve done lately. But it’s so tangy and perfectly fennel-y, that I’m looking forward to finding all sorts of new ways to use it (I really want to pair it with some grilled bluefish).

One of the things I’ve learned in my years of canning is that once the produce starts coming on in great waves, it’s helpful to have a small appliance or two in your kitchen arsenal to help break fruits and vegetables down into preservable shapes and sizes. I often use my blender to help soften fruit for jam making (pulse, don’t puree) and often use the grater blade for my food processor to shred all manner of veg for batches of relish or salsa.

Recently, the nice folks at Hamilton Beach asked if I’d be interested in trying out their new Stack & Snap 10 Cup Food Processor. Since I’m always curious about new appliances (particularly ones that can help out during canning season), I said yes. I’ve had this guy in my kitchen for a couple of months now and there are a bunch of things I really like about it.

First off, I really like its general concept. Instead of having to turn and lock the pieces into alignment, the components of this machine simply stack together. Once you’re ready to process, two little pieces click and hold the lid in place. When I first used the machine, I found it a little disconcerting that the bowl doesn’t lock onto the base, but it has proven to be plenty sturdy, so it doesn’t worry me at all.

I also really appreciate the fact that both the chopping blade and the slicing/grating disc fit into the bowl for storage (I’ve never found a good method for storing the accessory discs for my other food processor).

It’s also a seriously powerful in the shredding and slicing department. I have used it to grate many pounds of carrots, cabbage, potatoes, fennel, and very old, hard Parmesan cheese. It’s been a champ with them all. I also appreciate how wide the feed tube is. Makes it really easy to get large root vegetables in there.

The chopping blade is also a workhorse, though I was disappointed to find that it sits up a little too high to be truly useful for moderately sized batches of pastry dough and pie crust. Still, it makes quick work of larger batches of dough and things like these sunflower seed and cheddar crackers.

My one complaint about this machine has to do with the length of the cord. It’s too darn short! Truly though, I find this to be the case with most modern appliances. Because my kitchen is 47 years old (and has never been remodeled), I have just a couple of outlets placed at either end of the room. I either end up positioning the processor at an awkward angle and stretching the cord to its full length or getting an extension cord. If you have a space with more generously positioned electrical outlets, this shouldn’t be an issue for you.

Overall, I’m quite impressed with this food processor. I’ve long used a first generation Cuisinart (my aunt Flora bought it sometime in the mid-seventies) for my processing needs and I was pleased to see that this inexpensive unit could do much of what I ask of my vintage machine.

Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Friday, June 14, 2013. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog over the weekend.

Giveaway open US residents only.

One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post.

Also, make sure to check back tomorrow, when I’ll be sharing a recipe for fennel relish made right in the Stack & Snap (with action pictures and everything). If you’re a fennel fan, it’s certain to be a new favorite.

Disclosure: Hamilton Beach gave me one Stack & Snap 10 Cup Food Processor for review and photography purposes and they’re providing eight additional units for this giveaway. They did not pay for inclusion on the blog and my opinions remain entirely my own.